Investigating the Key Success Factors of Knowledge Management Systems in Public Sector: A Case Study from Dubai

Modern organizations need to use Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) toachieve their strategic goals. The successful implementation of KMS requires theidentification of key success factors. Building a competitive knowledge-basedeconomy is one of the most fundamental goals outlined in the UAE vision 2021.Knowledge Management Systems in Dubai Electricity and Water Authority(DEWA) has been selected as a case study. DEWA is a public-sector companyprovides electricity and water services to its customers across Dubai. DEWAincorporated KMS into its practices in 2009, aiming at becoming a sustainable learning organization. It has realized the great benefits of implementing knowledge management as it has served as an effective enabler for knowledge identification, storing, sharing, capturing and utilization throughout the organization. This study concentrated on essential success factors behind effective KMS practices. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings showed that KMS in DEWA are successful because of internal and external factors.Internal success factors are: leadership and top management support, effective Information and Communication Technology (ICT), employees, culture, organizational structure and processes. The main external environment success factor is the government support for smart government projects; smart city projects; Knowledge Economy pillars such as ICT, education and training, Economic Incentive & Institutional Regime, and Innovation Systems. It is recommended to provide more training, awareness, innovative projects and research to sustain the progress and development in DEWA.